DES MOINES, Iowa – Conservatives who have spent decades promoting deep cuts to government are giving mixed reviews to the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led project to slash the federal workforce and reduce or end disfavored programs.
The Associated Press interviewed four veteran budget hawks, including some who have worked on Republican presidential campaigns predating Musk or President Donald Trump becoming dominant in GOP politics.
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Some say Musk’s early targets demonstrate success and show more potential than previous efforts to downsize government due to his unique access and influence. Others say it’s too early to tell and argue that DOGE has stoked conservative outrage about specific agencies without going after much bigger pieces of the federal budget, like defense spending or programs with bipartisan support like Medicare and Social Security.
A list of savings provided by the White House last week noted at least $2.2 billion in initial savings identified by the group. The DOGE website has since noted at least $5.6 billion. Any total so far is a tiny fraction of Musk's initial goal of $2 trillion, the size of the federal budget deficit, or even the $1 trillion he has since mentioned more regularly.
Here's what the budget hawks said:
Grover Norquist, president and founder of Americans for Tax Relief
Norquist, whose government-cutting advocacy goes back to the administration of President Ronald Reagan, is famous for having said in 2001, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
He cheered Musk's early efforts.
“When you look at what they found after looking for a few days — I’m not going to second-guess some of the larger numbers they are talking about — this thing has paid for itself many times over now," Norquist said. As of last week, DOGE was operating with about $14 million, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
“Never mind if they find anything more,” Norquist added.
Musk is succeeding, no matter the final tally of DOGE's work, because he has unfettered access both to Trump and millions of followers on the social media platform he owns, X, Norquist said.
“You can’t bat it down and tell it to go away because X is out there before defenders of allowing Washington to do whatever it wants,” Norquist said. “That group can’t get over the fact that 10 million people read a tweet by Elon Musk listing five things suggesting Washington is out of control.”
Jessica Riedl, Manhattan Institute senior fellow on budget, tax, and economic policy
Musk's early efforts appear to be aimed more at satisfying Trump's culturally conservative base than targeting the biggest government spending sources, said Riedl, a veteran Republican budget analyst who was chief economist for former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the conservative Heritage Foundation's senior budget researcher, and the architect of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s 10-year deficit reduction proposal.
By seeking to eradicate racial and gender-based diversity, equity and inclusion spending from the the federal civil service, Musk is succeeding in getting the attention of Trump-styled conservatives with relatively few dollars to show for it, she said.
Cancelling so-called DEI contracts across the federal government is akin to cancelling the media subscriptions to national outlets such as The Associated Press, The New York Times, Politico and The Washington Post, she said. They are all regular targets of criticism from Trump's core supporters.
“So far, DOGE seems more about looking for symbolic culture war savings than truly reducing the budget deficit in any meaningful way,” said Riedl.
Likewise, Musk's effort to encourage many of the hundreds of thousands of eligible federal employees to accept terms to quit immediately in exchange for months of pay is seen by that same segment of voters as ridding the government of a force seen as thwarting Trump's policy agenda.
“These really get attention of Trump conservatives as fronts in the culture war, but ultimately do not save very much money at all," Riedl said.
A large majority of federal spending is tied up in Medicare and Social Security, veterans benefits, defense spending and interest on the national debt. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump insisted he would protect the two politically sacrosanct entitlement programs and expand the U.S. military, making these areas unlikely targets for cuts.
“If Trump were serious about the deficit, he'd be addressing Social Security, Medicare, defense and veterans benefits,” Riedl said. “And that's if the public even cares. I've seen no real evidence that they do.”
Only about a quarter of Americans said they were in favor of, as Musk recommended Thursday, eliminating entire federal agencies, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll conducted in January. Likewise, only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults said they favored eliminating a large number of federal jobs.
Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for social and economic policies, Cato Institute
So far, DOGE's recommendations read like a public relations campaign aimed at discrediting the federal government, said Nowrasteh, an executive for the libertarian think tank and co-author of a report published in December recommending cuts to Musk's group.
Nowrasteh thinks the group may be shoring up its standing with conservative voters before it reaches for further buy-in among more moderate voters.
“They are trying to take down portions of the government that appear to be liberal or left leaning. And in the process, they are trying to expose some of the sillier aspects of what is being funded," he said.
The Cato Institute called for cutting 10% of the federal workforce — translating to a loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs — and requiring at least 10% compensation cuts for those that remain. Besides the defense and entitlement cuts, they also propose selling all federal land, turning national parks over to states for management, among myriad other dramatic changes.
“Most of the public is innumerate,” he said. “They don't know the difference between a million and a billion. It seems like a lot of money to you and me. But to the federal government, it's nothing.”
Brittany Madni, executive vice president for Economic Policy Innovation Center
With Musk’s global profile and access in Trump’s world, DOGE has the potential to be far-reaching in a way previous efforts at deficit and budget reduction have not, said Madni, who leads a newer conservative budget and spending think tank aimed at working closely with Congress.
The access that Trump is granting DOGE means Musk’s team will have a view into a broad range of the government’s spending, she said. And Musk’s huge social media following, paired with Trump’s election victory, gives the project an air of momentum, Madni said.
“We see DOGE as an incredible opportunity to address some of the challenges that we have known existed in federal spending for a long time and haven’t really had the window to address,” she said. “It’s making budget cuts, budget review, cool again.”
She argued the Republican-controlled Congress would also be more likely to limit its budgets with DOGE's help.
“I think part of this conversation really has to be that DOGE is doing a phenomenal job already highlighting that there are places to make cuts, to reprioritize and save taxpayers money and reduce the deficit,” she said. “But besides that, there is Congress.”